Gas chromatographic study on chiral separation of PCBs was performed in a series of capillary columns coated with 0.1-μm film of modified cyclodextrin (CD) stationary phases. The preparation of columns included the investigation into the effect of the content of cyclodextrin derivative in polysiloxane, the type of polysiloxane and temperature of analysis on the quality of separation and retention of atropisomers of 15 selected PCB congeners. The separation properties towards PCBs of stationary phase heptakis(2,3-di-O-methyl-6-O-tert-butyl-dimethylsilyl)-β-CD dissolved in SE-30, SE-54, and OV-1701, were compared with those of 6-monokis-octamethylene-permethyl-β-CD anchored to polydimethylsiloxane polymer (ChirasilDex column, Chrompack, Middelburg, The Netherlands) and octakis(2,6-di-O-methyl-3-O-pentyl)-γ-CD in OV-1701 (MEGA, Legnano (MI), Italy). The correctness of quantitative enantiomer ratio determination was assesed by splitless analysis of PCBs reference solutions in concentration of 1.25–125 ng/ml (PCBs 45 and 91) and 2.5–250 ng/ml (PCB 95) (the PCB congeners are numbered according to IUPAC). Chirality 10:540–547, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

A photoionization detector (PID) has been evaluated for its applications in supercritical fluid chromatography using microbore columns. The PID is a nondestructive detector which is sensitive to the concentration of the analyte. Thus, maximum sensitivity is obtained at low flow rates. The PID dynamic range in supercritical fluid chromatography is approximately 104, which is much smaller than in gas chromatography. Although the PID appears to complement the flame ionization detector (FID) in many respects, it should be considered of limited value in environmental trace analyses due to the large cell volume. The PID can be used with both conventional and microbore packed columns; however, the detector used in this study is not suitable in its present design for capillary SFC.